Above section meets with REL R735 and AMST G751
TOPIC: NORTH AMERICAN RELIGIONS: NEW PERSPECTIVES
ON AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND CULTURE
This research seminar will examine recent developments in the field
of American religious history and culture. The closing years of the
past decade have witnessed a number of new initiatives in historical
scholarship relating to religion in America. Among the newer
approaches to be examined in this seminar are the study of “lived
religion,” the focus on religion in popular culture, the concern
with material culture studies, the expansion of the religious groups
examined as part of America’s spiritual pluralism, the geographical
inclusion of the transatlantic religious world, the attention now
give to New Religious Movements, and the impact of interdisciplinary
studies on all the humanities and the social sciences.
Members of the seminar will read a variety of the new scholarship
including the volumes listed below as well as relevant journal
literature. Evaluation will be based on participation in seminar
activities and the writing of a journal article employing one of the
above approaches to the study of American religion and culture on a
topic of the student’s own choice appropriate to the chosen
professional field, whether it be in Religious Studies, History, or
American Studies.
READINGS:
Diana L. Eck, A NEW RELIGIOUS AMERICA: HOW A “CHRISTIAN COUNTRY”
HAS BECOME THE WORLD’S MOST RELIGIOUSLY DIVERSE NATION (2001)
David D. Hall, ed., LIVED RELIGION IN AMERICA: TOWARD A HISTORY OF
PRACTICE (1997)
Colleen McDannell, MATERIAL CHRISTIANITY: RELGION AND POPULAR
CULTURE IN AMERICA (1995)
Leigh Eric Schmidt, HEARING THINGS: RELIGION, ILLUSION, AND THE
AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT (2000)
Susan Juster and Lisa MacFarlane, eds, A MIGHTY BAPTISM: RACE
GENDER, AND THE CREATION OF AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM (1996)
Harry S. Stout and D.G. Hart, eds., NEW DIRECTIONS IN AMERICAN
RELIGIOUS HISTORY (1997)
Thomas A. Tweed, ed., RETELLING U.S. RELIGIOUS HISTORY (1997)
Grant Wacker, HEAVEN BELOW: EARLY PENTECOSTALS AND AMERICAN
CULTURE (2001)
Peter W. Williams, ed., PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAN RELIGION AND
CULTURE (1999)